## Why

Have you ever been reading a book and suddenly come across a word, and you think you know what it means but are unsure? It happens frequently. The writer of this lesson reads books written in time settings of the 1700 - 1890 timeframe on Kindle a lot. Some books refer to words that are not part of today’s vocabulary. So it is like magic to look up the word when you encounter it and gain the meaning the author is conveying. Our learners are no different. Some learners have an extensive vocabulary, and others have a small vocabulary. The dictionary will support all learners!

## Who

The Who question is easy to answer. Our current learners need to gain a more extensive vocabulary. They may also need to learn the secondary meaning of a word. For example, let’s take the word “beam.” It has four meanings. It is:

1. a long piece of wood or metal to support a roof,
2. a ray of light,
3. a radiant smile, and
4. the slang name for a piece of gymnastics equipment - Balance Beam.

If our learner only knows one meaning - a ray of light and the sentence is about expressions, the learner may need help understanding the sentence. However, the learner can interactively look up the word’s meaning using the ReadSpeaker dictionary tool and gain new insight into the sentence’s meaning.

## What

The learner can encounter unknown words in their Brightspace course. The dictionary is a great tool. Brightspace quizzes have the dictionary, translate, and download to mp3 tools turned off for all quizzes. If an institution can select to have any of these tools turned on, then it is available for all courses, not selected courses or quizzes. Definitions can also be read aloud.

## How

The Dictionary works the same in docReader and webReader

- Highlight the unknown word.
- The pop-up box will appear.
- Click on "Dictionary."
- Read the definition or click the play arrow.

## Video

Proceed to the Next Section